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Bombshell: Whistleblower Claims Previous Whistleblower Didn’t Clean Whistle
“Someone had to say something. It’s disgusting.”
An anonymous whistleblower has come forward with an explosive claim that a previous whistleblower, also anonymous, did not properly clean the whistle after blowing it.
“When the previous whistleblower, whoever it was, blew the whistle, they should have known to clean it immediately afterwards,” writes the whistleblower, in a complaint released today under a Freedom of Information Act request. “It’s whistleblowing 101. We whistleblowers have to trust that the whistles we are blowing are clean, and when they aren’t, we have to blow the whistle on that, even if it’s a dirty whistle since they didn’t clean it. It’s a matter of justice. And cleanliness.”
Whether the whistleblower has any legal recourse is an open question, according to attorneys that specialize in whistleblowing litigation. “I always tell clients, when it comes to whistleblowing, you have to be careful regarding how you blow it or you could totally blow it,” says Norm Smith, 53, head of the Whistleblowing Whistleblowers, an organization that exists to blow the whistle on unsafe whistleblowing.
“A whistle is a simple and beautiful tool in our justice system, and we are ethically bound to respect the loud, ear-rending noise it makes…